I Can Change
by Carmelle Christos
Summary: Dad grabbed mom's wrist desperately, "I can change!" he cried. "No you can't, Edward. You're too perfect." Love changes everything. It can build families as easily as it can tear them apart. Follow along as this complicated family faces both sides of love and join in on the contrasting tale of how a mother and daughter bond over the same desire.


**A/n: I'm back and I feel like I have something special to offer. Stick with me and be sure to leave a review.**

**~Karma**

I Can Change

ONE

Edward came to sit beside me on the porch swing tonight. He brought his mother's quilt with him and draped it across my shoulders as he sat. _How kind,_ I thought to myself. _How kind._ He stared at the side of my face as I looked out into the darkening forest. The sun was setting before my eyes and the temperature fell with it.

"Isabella?" Edward reached for my hand. I drew it into my sleeve as his fingers brushed against my nails. "Please" I begged, _Don't call me that_, "Bella." I saw Edward smile from the very corner of my eye. It was always the same. First his eyes narrowed and he would almost pout before the left side of his pink lips would pull upwards tightly and the right would slack as if he'd had a stroke. _That's mean, I'm sorry._ In his mind I'm sure he felt special. I'd given him the right to use my nickname, he was a step closer to his prize, but in reality, I just couldn't bear to hear that name anymore. Only _he_ could say it perfectly, and now he was gone – lost in the line of duty.

"Bella?" Edward tried again to grasp my hand. I pulled away again – it wasn't his to hold. His smile reversed into a frown. It was a widely known secret that Edward was in love with me. He had been in love with me since the day we met in Junior High School. Edward was there when I got my braces and then glasses in the same miserable sixth grade year. Edward was there when I started growing boobs in the seventh grade and he even defended me when Eric Yorkie squeezed them later that year. Edward pretended to be happy when Tyler Crowley asked me out in the tenth grade and lent me his shoulder when Tyler cheated on me our senior year. Edward threw his graduation cap in the air beside me and packed up his things and moved to Seattle with me for college. He took the back seat when I met my best friend Alice and gave me the girl time I so desperately desired, and when Alice transferred to a school in California he visited her with me. For grad school, we split up. Edward flew off to Harvard Medical School while I joined Alice in California.

That's where I met him. He was beautiful and I hated everything about him. He didn't care about anything but himself. He was a selfish, womanizing pig and I was his next target. Alice told me not to fall for him and told him not to, well, fuck me. And though I hated him, his persistence grew on me and soon enough, we threw caution to the wind and made love. That had to be the easiest part of our relationship – the love making. Everything else was so frustratingly complicated, but I loved him and he loved me.

When Edward came to visit me two years into my relationship, he'd brought a girl named Tanya along with him. I was happy for him and Edward tried to be the same for me, but he couldn't handle seeing me again now that I was all grown up and finally in love. I suppose he felt that he truly had lost me. When Jacob proposed to me, Edward halfheartedly congratulated me and left for Alaska with Tanya.

"Bella, please?" Edward was kneeling in front of me, his green eyes frantically searching my brown ones. For a brief moment I hated him for interrupting me. But when I saw the sorrow in his eyes, I instantly forgave him. After all, he was my best friend, right? He'd been around long enough to claim the title, yet somehow I felt Alice should have been beside me instead of him. "Will you please talk to me? Please tell me what's wrong." I angrily focused on his eyes. _The man I'm supposed to marry is dead and I'm carrying his child inside of me and you can't figure out what's wrong?! _

I should have said that, but instead I cried "I'm pregnant!" and ran inside to call Alice, leaving that dreadful quilt behind. Maybe the reason I could never fully open up to Edward was because he was so perfect. He was handsome, rich, charming, brilliant and kind. _So very kind_. Jacob was anything but perfect. He was so disgustingly imperfect in fact, that he was perfect for me.

"Hey chica" Alice chirped on her end of the phone. Somewhere behind her, Jasper mumbled "Hey Bells" and just as I was about to respond, Edward burst through the door looking rather distraught.

"Marry me Bella!"


End file.
